Live chat recap: Discussing the value of simulated school massacres

View full sizeBad guy John Truax, of Portland, surveys the walkway and playground for police officers after breaking into the kindergarten classroom during a simulated mass casualty drill at Cannon Beach Elementary School Monday.Alex Pajunas/The Daily Astorian

Two weeks ago, police and fire officials from Cannon Beach, Seaside and the Clatsop County Sheriff's Office conducted a first-responders’ drill at Cannon Beach Elementary School. The drill involved actors firing blanks from semi-automatic rifles and even a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter thundering overhead. It also involved children playing victims, some with fake blood smeared on their faces.

A good-intentioned effort to make children safer in an unsafe world? No doubt, but it’s also important to make children FEEL safer. Dr. Craigan Usher, director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Education at Oregon Health & Science University, points out that "a school drill is not a time for learning to negotiate violence and terror. Schools do not set off smoke bombs to simulate buildings being ablaze, and ... we should not use gunshots (and) bodies being strewn about to better prepare children for school shootings. This is much more likely to undermine one's sense of safety and rend asunder one's ability to learn at school, especially for younger students."

Editorial board member Len Reed chatted at noon Wednesday, talking with readers about the value of simulated school massacres and the best ways to prepare for the worst. Replay the conversation below.